NBN Co’s new chief executive, Bill Morrow, has launched an aggressive broadband construction strategy to challenge what is shaping up to be its biggest rival, TPG Telecom.

NBN Co will on Tuesday morning announce a plan to connect homes and businesses with the same fibre-to-the-basement technology that TPG is offering in an attempt to push the company out of the market.

The move could involve up to 50,000 apartments, many of which will compete head-to-head with TPG.

The battle for apartment buildings is vital because most can only allow one company to provide FTTB services and are very profitable because they are densely populated.

TPG launched its own fibre-to-the-basement network for 500,000 premises in September 2013, which used a ­regulatory loophole to expand its established network to connect ­apartment buildings.

NBN Co chairman Ziggy Switkowski has previously warned TPG’s move could have a significant impact on the company’s bottom line and damage its business case – a claim TPG executive chairman David Teoh denies. The latest move signals a new and more combative approach by NBN Co under Mr Morrow, who joined the company two weeks ago.

“A building that signs up to TPG runs the risk of being left with only one retail service provider – TPG itself," Mr Morrow said.

“The NBN levels the playing field for Australian telecommunications and creates real and vibrant competition.

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“We believe the NBN represents the superior solution for building owners and the families and businesses they house."

Mr Morrow described the latest move as “a commercial response to emerging competition" and said the majority of the telecommunications industry opposed TPG’s plan and preferred NBN Co to be the main wholesale provider of services.

“The NBN offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to allow competition in Australian telecommunications to flourish," Mr Morrow said. “A clear majority of the industry is opposed TPG’s plans or wants the firm to be subject to competition constraints."

Planning already underway

It is understood active planning for the program and detailed discussions with bodies corporate and building owners has already begun.

The first areas that will be targeted by NBN Co’s plans include Haymarket in Sydney, New Farm and Fortitude Valley in Brisbane and South Melbourne, with services due to become available there from mid-2014.

But the company declined to state when its initial program would be completed. The Coalition government has previously signalled its intent to use FTTB technology in an effort to lower construction costs while sacrificing internet speeds.

“A list of initial priority areas will be announced in the coming weeks," an NBN Co spokesman said.

Contracts and promotional material distributed by TPG to building owners, and seen by The Australian Financial Review, stipulate that the telecommunications carrier would be the only provider to offer fibre-to-the-basement technology to the apartment building if signed.

“If another provider were to install the same technology there is a potential for conflict between the two systems and neither would operate at their full potential speed," an accompanying flyer states. “However, this TPG service will not prevent the National Broadband Network’s (NBN) access to the building, and any existing DSL or cable services provided to and within the building will continue to function as they always have."

In those apartment buildings equipped with the technology, TPG said it plans to offer speeds at least four times faster than those currently available, but at the same price as existing copper broadband services, and significantly cheaper than those it has begun selling over equivalent NBN services.

Allowing TPG to lock NBN Co out of being the wholesale provider of broadband services in any given building “would risk damaging the economics of the NBN and stifling nascent competition in retail telecommunications," it added.

NBN Co has been running FTTB trials in Melbourne with service providers including Telstra, which last week said test customers were getting internet download speeds of 90 megabits per second.